Out of the ruins
by pezgirl1
Summary: Summary: Sam struggles to pull herself from the ruin that has become her life, and with the help of her team she may just pull through. But danger is, again, lurking around the corner…
1. Break away

**Title: Out of the Ruins**

Rated: R

Warnings: Rape, language, violence, torture, angst, angst and more angst

Narration: Third Person

Tense: Past

Season: 4

Disclaimer: I don't own the Stargate characters

Summary: Sam struggles to pull herself from the ruin that has become her life, and with the help of her team she may just pull through. But danger is, again, lurking around the corner…

_-and the state police still have no clue as to the whereabouts of missing air force major, Samantha Carter. It is thought that the thirty-four year old was abducted on her way to Cheyenne Mountain in the early hours of Thursday morning. Four days have passed with no-_

Jack tuned out the news reporter as he turned his car into the driveway, he killed the engine; the radio along with it, and sighed. Still holding the steering wheel he leant forwards, resting his face on his knuckles. The previous four days caught up with him as he sat there, there was still no word on where the hell Carter was. They didn't even know where she'd been abducted from, or by whom.

He hadn't stopped looking for her since Thursday, none of them had; and none of them would ever stop searching. He'd just been scouring the streets, asking around and searching for any clue as to where she might be. But there was nothing, nobody knew a damn thing; he supposed that they wouldn't, it had been between three-thirty and four in the morning when she'd been taken. No one who wasn't military would be up at that time, at least not many anyway.

Jack's arms dropped and he sat back in his seat, he scrubbed his face tiredly with his hands and blinked to try to get rid of the sandpaper eyes. He'd got no sleep since before she'd been taken and he refused to, even when Janet had threatened to sedate him. Well, no offence meant to the doc, but no way would he take a nap while, for all he knew, Carter was hurt.

Daniel and Teal'c had been the same; they had been trying to contact the Asgard to help them look for her. With their technology Sam would be found a lot quicker. But again, no such luck. They'd considered the Tok'ra, but they had no idea where their current base was.

_Don't call us, we'll call you_

Fantastic advice; not dismissive at all, it wasn't completely useless and the Tok'ra certainly weren't being evasive! The only Tok'ra he felt didn't deserve his anger was Jacob, Sam's dad; he'd be just as anxious when he found out.

"Damn it, Carter," he growled, opening the car door and stepping out. "Where are you?" he slammed the door shut, locked it and made a beeline for the door. He was going to call Daniel, see if he had any leads.

But he refused to get his hopes up.

* * *

The ground was hot, scorching, under her feet; the tiny stones dug into the soles, but she paid no attention. The little irritants paled in comparison to the agony burning in her sides, in her shoulder, her wrists-

The scraping sounds of metal on paving slab had followed her since she'd escaped-

_Don't think about it…just don't, don't think…_

Her legs wobbled as she dragged her feet towards…towards any place that wasn't back in that house, in that basement-

_Don't…just don't…_

_Whip…crack…_

_Screaming…sniggering…_

Her legs ached, and it wasn't just because of the weight she was pulling with her. Her knees almost buckled and she whimpered as her sides ate at her, she held her left side gingerly so as not to aggravate the injuries. The pain in her shoulder screamed at her, causing her to cry out. The metal around her wrists clanged together, she swallowed back another cry and shuddered-

_Clang…clank…_

_Taunting…laughter…_

_Cries…pulling harder…_

_She couldn't break them…_

She looked down, not really wanting to, and almost threw up at the sight of her wrists; of the stolen, too-big shirt, all stained red. She looked away, had to. Instead, she focussed her attention on the wooden bench that slowly came into view; a paper packet of something caught her eyes.

It was a sandwich wrapper, her stomach was caving; she was so hungry. As she neared she saw that the package was empty, an overwhelming disappointment washed over her. The scraping sounds filled her ears, the metal surrounding her flayed ankles dug into the raw flesh; she stopped walking, still staring at the sandwich wrapper.

The scraping had stopped, finally.

In the distance she heard a scream, for a moment she thought it was her own-

_A choked cry of pain echoed around the confines of the room…_

- but she hadn't opened her mouth.

She swayed, feeling cold; she wished that the world would stop tipping. She was going to fall over, her knees flared as they hit the ground, finally buckling, and the weight of her upper-body carried her forwards until her cheek scraped the burning ground.

She couldn't move, the pain in her sides overtook her; her stomach roiled and she retched, the headache she'd been carrying around with her since she'd been dragged into that car suddenly intensified.

Black spots gathered in front of her eyes, she barely noticed the hand on her shoulder or the coat now covering her; the black was everywhere, it took everything.

Even the pain.

* * *

A/N: You know I love reviews ;-)


	2. Hello

Out of the ruins: part 2

Janet observed her patient quietly, but thoughtfully. The machines hooked to the man were bleeping incessantly signalling that he was alive, the man's fever had just broken; a thin tube ran into his nose, taped down to his cheek.

She looked down at her clipboard, ticked a few boxes and studied the man again; no reason not to be thorough. His breathing was normal; temperature was a lot lower than it had been yesterday.

All in all, everything seemed to be fine.

Satisfied, she walked out of the room. The hallway outside was quiet, quieter than usual; which was a little ominous, the halls of the air force academy hospital were usually buzzing with activity.

_The quiet before the storm_, came to mind.

Maybe the unusual bout of quiet-time would allow her to call the SGC, not only to check that SG1 were looking after themselves but, also, whether there were any more leads on finding Sam.

The air force major was her best friend, and she was deeply worried for her safety; if anything happened to Sam, if she was-

Janet shook herself out of it, a little angry at herself. Sam was a fighter, whatever happened she had to remember that. Sam was not…just because no one had heard from her for the last few days didn't mean that she was…that she wasn't alive.

She walked along the hall, intent on exiting the hospital so she could call Colonel O'Neill for any updates. After that, she'd call Cassie to relay the information; the teenager hadn't been very open with her feelings, but Janet could tell that she was shaken.

Cassie was at school, but it was her lunch break. Her cell would be switched on, too, and after constantly being reminded and nagged by the teen to call, it would be difficult to expect anything less.

Janet fished her cell out of her pocket and was just turning the corner to use the doors when the formally quiet hospital exploded to life. The doors had crashed open to emit a flurry of medics and a stretcher; she inwardly cancelled the idea of calling SG1 or Cassie and pocketed the phone.

She saw that the stretcher was spotted and smeared with blood, and then a red-stained, matted shock of blonde hair came into view- _Head injuries, possible concussion-_

As she stepped up to shadow the stretcher and assess the injuries of her patient she finally saw who it was. Her stomach tightened and, horrified, she felt tears sting her eyes as she looked at the defeated form of Samantha Carter.

_Oh, god._

~*~ ?~*~

Daniel had been in his office, studying a framed photo of SG1, when Teal'c had come barrelling in, "Daniel Jackson, Major Carter has been found."

His heart leapt, found? As in, found dead…found alive? "H-how is she?" _Was_ she dead? He placed the photo back on the desk a little harder than he'd intended, but he didn't care.

"I do not know," the Jaffa replied, his dark eyes full of concern. "She is alive."

Thank God!

"Well, where is she?!"

Now wasn't the time to be stingy on the info!

~*~?~*~

Trying to shut out the background noises, Cassie stared at the small screen of her cell phone; willing it to receive a text message, an incoming call- anything! Anything but the state of inactivity it had been in for the past twenty minutes.

She half-swung her bag onto the wood picnic-type table and sat down, eyes still glued to her cell. Why wasn't her mom calling? She knew how worried she was for Sam, she couldn't have forgotten. No way.

Suddenly a thought occurred to her; it filled her with a hope that warred with the anxiety within her for domination; _unless they've found Sam, and mom's too busy helping to call._ The anxiety won as a new thought entered her mind, what if her mom couldn't call because she was busy trying to _save_ Sam? What if she was really hurt?

What if Sam was _dying_?

She tried desperately to shove the thoughts from her mind, her thumbs whizzed around the keypad with the precision and speed of a pro; after entering the numbers she held the phone to her ear.

She waited, hardly daring to breathe.

~*~?~*~

Daniel's eyes were fixed on the road ahead of them, his knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he tried not to let his fears overwhelm him. Sam was fine, she was strong; she was one of the strongest people he knew.

Sam was _not_ dead.

"Can't you drive any faster?"

Daniel bit back a retort, feeling highly-strung, "I don't think us getting involved in an RTC is going to help Sam, Jack."

Jack was as scared as the rest of them, though he'd never admit it. It would serve no one if they locked horns. Besides, he had to concentrate on the road. His eyes left the road for a moment when a cell phone started to ring; he didn't think it was his.

"O'Neill."

There was a momentary pause, and then Jack continued, "Cassie? Don't worry, kiddo; they've found her….I don't know, but I'm sure she's fine…," Jack snorted at whatever the girl had said. "I know you're not a kid, Cass. Sam's tough, she'll be fine. I'll keep you up-to-date."

The corners of Daniel's lips twitched into a weak smile, he heard his friend swear quietly and knew that he'd hung up, "Better not use that language near Cassie, Janet has the big needles."

Jack just grumbled.

Daniel's eyes quickly located the hospital building, they drove around the corner on another street, the parking lot was pretty packed but he didn't care; he'd park inside the damn hospital if I had to.

He needed to see if Sam was okay; needed to know where she'd been for the past four days.

_At least she's not missing anymore_, he thought to himself.


End file.
